Personalidad

CHINA

By Tan Hui Xin¹ and Rennie Whang² I. Country overview

A. Legal system in brief

China employs what is known as a socialist legal system. The Constitution is the highest law of the land and appoints the National People’s Congress as the highest organ of state power and legislative authority. In turn, the National People’s Congress oversees four other political bodies, namely, the state administration (the State Council), the armed forces (the State Central Military Commission), the highest judicial organ (the Supreme People’s Court), and the prosecutor’s office (the Supreme People’s Procuratorate).

Under the Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”), there are four levels of courts: grassroots, intermediate, higher, and supreme people’s courts. Existing alongside the people’s courts are special courts such as military and maritime courts.³

B. Key stakeholders in the legal industry

The main legal service providers in China are local law firms, international law firms and increasingly, alternatives such as online legal service portals.⁴ The main regulatory authority is the Ministry of Justice, which oversees legislation drafting, sentencing, prosecution, public awareness educational programs, and participation in international treaties amongst other responsibilities. The Ministry comprises various agencies, including the Legal Aid Centre and the All China Lawyers Association, a self-regulatory organisation whose members include every licensed lawyer and law firm in the country.

C. Key statistics

Due to government policies to increase innovation, high-tech initiatives in China have been growing rapidly. Most notably, artificial intelligence (“AI”) has been experiencing accelerated growth. In 2017, total investment in AI surpassed US$9 billion, a hundred times higher than in 2012.⁵ The government has announced its intention to attain global leadership in the field of AI by 2030.

1 Singapore Management University School of Law.

2 Singapore Management University School of Law.

3 The Law Library of Congress, “Introduction to China’s Legal System” (12 July 2016) <https://www.loc.gov/law/help/legal-research-guide/china.php> (accessed 20 January 2019).

4 Jing Li, “The Legal Profession of China in a Globalized World: Innovations and New Challenges” International Journal of the Legal Profession 2018.

5 Fa Chan, “ : ; ;

” BaiJiaHao (25 February 2018)

< https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1591569848973809029&wfr=spider&for=pc> (accessed 9 March 2019).

The number of lawyers in China is low relative to its total population. A 2017 report by Xinhua places the number of law firms in China at 25,000, and the number of lawyers at 300,000.⁶ Relative to China’s massive population size of 1.39 billion, lawyers comprise only 0.02% percent of the population. This has been viewed by observers as a major factor for the rise in alternative legal service providers and legal technology.

II. Technological innovation

Both private firms and public institutions have been actively developing legal technologies.

Some important trends are AI, big data, and online legal service providers.

AI-enabled robots capable of providing basic legal advice have been installed in different parts of China. For example, in a Beijing court, an AI robot named XiaoFa dispenses advice to over 40,000 litigation questions and 30,000 legal issues.⁷ In Qinghai’s legal service centres, another robot has been trained in a range of subjects such as marriage, labour, consumer rights, and mediation law.⁸ In Hangzhou, a robot named Faxiaotao can assist customers in dispute analysis and even recommend suitable attorneys.⁹

Apart from catering to the public, AI has also been utilised to assist judges. For example, the Shanghai High People’s Court partnered with iFlytek Co Ltd to implement a case review system.

The system will be able to review up to 79 types of cases, suggest appropriate sentences, and evaluate whether the available evidence is sufficient to justify a particular sentence. This sophisticated software is outfitted with numerous capabilities, such as incremental learning, knowledge mining, and voice recognition.¹⁰

Big data has also been used to increase the legal system’s transparency. One prominent example is Legal Miner, whose products mine Chinese court decisions and offer solutions on risk assessments and strategy development.¹¹ Another example is the Chinese government’s recently-compiled online database of 32 million judgments.¹²

In addition, internet-based legal service providers have had a positive impact on the market for legal services. For instance, the phone application Pocket Lawyer allows customers to purchase legal services from lawyers registered on the application. When a customer places an order, Pocket Lawyer transmits the order to selected lawyers located nearby. The lawyer with the fastest response or most competitive quote is then awarded the order. In this way, the application aims to increase the speed and affordability of legal services.¹³ Other platforms include the websites Yifatong and Yingle, which can identify issues in a customer’s case and

6 Hua Xia, “China has 300,000 Lawyers” Xinhua (9 January 2017).

7 “Robot Gives Guidance in Beijing Court” China Daily (13 October 2017).

8 “Robots Help with Public Legal Services on Chinese Plateau” China Daily (25 July 2018).

9 “Robot Gives Guidance in Beijing Court” China Daily (13 October 2017).

10 Ma Si, “iFlytek Developing AI-enabled System for Legal Purposes” China Daily (7 March 2018).

11 Legal Miner website <http://www.legalminer.com/> (accessed 20 January 2019).

12 Chong Koh Ping, “China Shows How Tech Can Work in Court: CJ Menon” The Straits Times (23 August 2017).

13 Jing Li, “The Legal Profession of China in a Globalized World: Innovations and New Challenges” International Journal of the Legal Profession 2018.

recommend attorneys with the relevant expertise.¹⁴ Such websites are intended to help clients select reliable lawyers for their case, thereby reducing information asymmetry between clients and lawyers.

III. Regulatory innovation

Beginning with Premier Li Keqiang’s announcement of the “Internet Plus” (“ +”) initiative, the Chinese government has been actively promoting innovation in many sectors of the economy, not least the legal industry. The government’s efforts have targeted most of the key stakeholders in the legal industry. For instance, Chinese courts at all levels have been directed by the SPC to experiment with how big data and AI can facilitate the litigation process.¹⁵ In 2016, law firms and technology firms received awards for excellent “Internet + Law” projects at the China Internet Rule of Law Conference organised by the Ministry of Justice.¹⁶

IV. Dispute resolution innovation

The SPC has since 2015 pushed for the use of multiple dispute resolution mechanisms in courts nationwide. By December 2016, the courts had established 2,338 centres for litigation and mediation,¹⁷ and approximately 13.617 million cases were handled via mediation in 2017.¹⁸ At the first meeting of the 13^th National People’s Congress on 9 March 2018, in the annual SPC Work Report, SPC President Zhou Qiang affirmed the continued promotion of, among others, the “Emei Mountain Experience”. This refers to how courts at two levels in Meishan, Sichuan, solved 80.72% of disputes by means of alternative dispute resolution between 2014 and 2016, with only 7.06% of cases entering the judicial adjudication process. SPC President Zhou also said that the SPC will establish a national court online mediation platform, having since February 2017 carried out online mediation pilot projects in four provinces (Zhejiang, Hebei, Anhui and Sichuan), two cities (Beijing and Shanghai) and the Shanghai Maritime Court.¹⁹ In Zhejiang, for example, the WeChat phone messenger application has been used to build a mobile micro-court which allows, among others, online filings, inquiries, mediation, trials, and payment, and is expected to be able to cater to over 90% of court cases.²⁰ Parties enter through ID card-matching and face recognition authentication, and are able to directly communicate

14 Jing Li, “The Legal Profession of China in a Globalized World: Innovations and New Challenges” International Journal of the Legal Profession 2018.

15 “Robot Gives Guidance in Beijing Court” China Daily (13 October 2017).

16 Li Ji, “2016 “ “ + ” ” ( ) ” Hexun (16 October 2016).

17 The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, “2017 White Paper on Court Reform in China” (14 March 2017) <http://english.court.gov.cn/2017-03/14/content_28552928.htm> (accessed 22 December 2018).

18 The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, “Resolution on the Work Report of the Supreme People’s Court” at the First Meeting of the 13^th National People’s Congress on March 20, 2018

<http://gongbao.court.gov.cn/Details/69d3772d9e94aae3ea2af3165322a1.html> (accessed 22 December 2018).

19 People’s Court Mediation Platform, “The Supreme Court Initiated Pilot Programs for Some Provincial Online Mediation Platforms” (17 February 2017) < http://tiaojie.court.gov.cn/bannerPage> (accessed 23 December 2018); Fang Xuhui, “Recent ODR Developments in China” (2017) 4 International Journal on Online Dispute Resolution 2 at p 36.

20 The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, “From Filing to the Execution of the Entire Online Transfer Process: Zhejiang Mobile Micro Court 4.0” (11 September 2018) <http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-117841.html>

(accessed 22 December 2018).

with judges via text, voice messages, pictures, and videos. Furthermore, court actions such as freezing, sealing, and enforcement are publicly disclosed.

A focus of the SPC has also been on establishing “smart courts.” This term, first mentioned by SPC President Zhou in 2016 and later reiterated in 2018, connotes informatisation, which may in turn be harnessed to enhance the transparency and standardisation of judicial processes.²¹ It involves improving centralised data management, strengthening the analysis of big data, promoting the standardisation of judicial treatment and sentencing, and making the litigation process a more electronic one. To this end, the SPC established the China Justice Big Data Institute on 10 November 2016 to promote the management of judicial big data resources and the use of AI technology in courts, engage in the training of personnel, and so on.²²

A forerunner in the electronic litigation process may be said to be the Hangzhou Internet Court, which was established in 2017 to explore using the Internet to adjudicate cases concerning the Internet.²³ Hangzhou was a natural choice as many of the country’s e-commerce companies, including Alibaba, are located there. Hangzhou was also the first cross-border e-commerce experimental zone in the country.²⁴ The court adjudicates contract and product liability disputes arising from online shopping, disputes concerning internet service contracts, loan disputes executed over the Internet, as well as online copyright infringement.²⁵ The entire court process takes place online, with just 20 days needed for a case to be taken from prosecution to resolution, including a 15-day period of proof. Trials may also be “asynchronous”: that is, parties may log into the platform at different times, as long as this is within prescribed time limits.²⁶ As of end-October, over a year into the establishment of the court, the 20 judges of the court had accepted a total of 14,233 cases, concluded 11,794 cases, and issued three white papers on e-commerce trials and intellectual property protection. Additionally, the average time and duration of trials were reduced by 65% and 25% respectively.²⁷ The Internet Court has also been addressing novel points of law involving new technologies, such as adjudication of the first Bitcoin “mining machine” dispute in October 2018.

21 The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, “Resolution on the Work Report of the Supreme People’s Court” at the Fourth Meeting of the 12^th National People’s Congress on March 16, 2016

<http://gongbao.court.gov.cn/Details/6ce239a82c31348f8856a986e9eb45.html> (accessed 23 December 2018).

22 China Justice Big Data Service Platform, <http://data.court.gov.cn/pages/contact_us.html> (accessed 26 December 2018);

People’s Court News Media Corporation, “China Judicial Big Data Research Institute Special Research and China Judicial Big Data Online Service Press Conference” (30 November 2017) < http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-71022.html>

(accessed 26 December 2018).

23 New Blue Network, Zhejiang Network Radio and TV Station, “‘Online Dispute Online Trial’: The Country’s First Internet Court Established in Hangzhou” (19 August 2017) < http://n.cztv.com/news/12641131.html> (accessed 23 December 2018).

24 China Net Wave News, “Hangzhou Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Test Area to Form a Unique ‘Hangzhou Model’” (9 March 2016) <http://zjnews.china.com.cn/yuanchuan/2016-03-08/60617.html> (accessed 23 December 2018).

25 The Litigation Platform of Hangzhou Internet Court website <https://www.netcourt.gov.cn/portal/main/en/index.htm>

(accessed 23 December 2018).

26 People’s Daily, “Internet Court Demonstrates Judicial Governance of ‘Chinese Intelligence’” Tencent (10 December 2018)

<http://tech.qq.com/a/20181210/001187.htm> (accessed 23 December 2018).

27 Wang Shanshan, “Hangzhou Internet Court: ‘China’s Program’ for Internet Judicial Governance” China Court Net (25 November 2018) <https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2018/11/id/3585042.shtml> (accessed 23 December 2018).

The Beijing Internet Court and Guangzhou Internet Courts were subsequently set up in September 2018, with the former receiving 5,497 applications for filing just within two months of its establishment.²⁸

Other technologies have been incorporated into the dispute resolution process. For example, the SPC has declared its acceptance of blockchain-based evidence after it was first accepted by the Hangzhou Internet Court in June 2018,²⁹ and in February 2018, the Guangzhou Arbitration Commission issued the first arbitral award based on the “Arbitration Chain”.³⁰ This was because Qianhai Weizhong Bank and the Commission jointly keep loan contract elements in a blockchain: once a loan is overdue, arbitration may be conducted based on information stored there. The Nanjing Arbitration Commission also launched an online arbitration platform in September 2018 that is based on blockchain technology, with participating nodes including depository institutions, financial institutions, and arbitration institutions.³¹ It is noted that blockchain technology has been extended to the notarisation of documents, with the country’s first judicial alliance chain legalXchain covering 11 courts, IP360 (a cloud-based intelligent system which monitors Internet data),³² judicial appraisal institutions, legal service companies, and other 11 authoritative judicial nodes.³³

Apart from blockchain technology, virtual reality technology was used in March 2018 to replicate a crime scene in Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court,³⁴ and intelligent speech recognition has been used in court trials.³⁵

V. Business innovation

The market size of China’s legal services reportedly reached 500 billion yuan in 2017, with online legal service platforms increasingly involved.³⁶ Indeed, a 2017 report on the online legal

28 Sun Yahui, “‘Online Case Online Trial’: Internet Court Opens New Litigation Experience” People’s Daily Overseas Edition (14 November 2018) < https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2018/11/id/3574642.shtml> (accessed 23 December 2018).

29 Supreme People’s Court Network, “Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues in the Trial of Internet Court Cases” (7 September 2018) < http://www.court.gov.cn/zixun-xiangqing-116981.html> (accessed 23 December 2018); Mark Barley, “Chinese Court Launches Blockchain Evidence Platform” Ledger Insights (September 2018)

<https://www.ledgerinsights.com/chinese-court-blockchain-evidence-platform/> (accessed 23 December 2018).

30 Chen Yuxuan, “How Far from Us Technology Network Companies Deploy the ‘Hot-selling’ Blockchain” Xinhua (29 March 2018) <http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-03/29/c_1122607319.htm> (accessed 23 December 2018); Fang Xuhui,

“Recent ODR Developments in China” (2017) 4 International Journal on Online Dispute Resolution 2 at p 33.

31 Nanjing Arbitration Commission, “Nanjing Arbitration Commission Online Trial Operation of Arbitration Platform” (27 September 2018) <http://ac.nanjing.gov.cn/zczx/gzdt/201809/t20180927_5801949.html> (accessed 23 December 2018);

Wolfie Zhao, “Chinese Arbitrator Builds Online Ruling System on a Blockchain” Coindesk (28 September 2018)

<https://www.coindesk.com/chinese-arbitrator-builds-online-ruling-system-on-a-blockchain> (accessed 23 December 2018).

32 China Daily News, “Truth Technology’s IPO360 Internet Rule of Law Cloud Platform Wins Internet Law Innovation Project Award" (21 December 2017) <https://item.btime.com/b4p36l9hgoc8usbo1q46rco3b76> (accessed on 25 December, 2018).

33 China Daily News, “Truth Technology’s Judicial Alliance Chain legalXchain Wins the Annual China Internet Legal Service Innovation Project” (29 November 2018) <http://tech.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201811/29/WS5c048449a3101a87ca9469b1.html>

(accessed 25 December 2018).

34 Xinhua, “Beijing Court Turns to Virtual Reality” (2 March 2018) < http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/02/c_137009348.htm> (accessed 23 December 2018).

35 China Economic Net, “Alibaba Cloud and Huayu Software Cooperate to Further Promote the Judicial Industry AI Upgrade”

(22 December 2017) <http://www.ce.cn/cysc/tech/gd2012/201712/22/t20171222_27392657.shtml> (accessed 23 December 2018); Masha Borak, “China Embraces Tech in its Courtrooms” TechNode (24 October 2018)

<https://technode.com/2018/10/24/china-court-technology/> (accessed 23 December 2018).

36 People’s Network, “Click Law and Bank of Communications Join Hands to Realise a New “Internet+Law” Service (29 June 2017) < http://sh.people.com.cn/n2/2017/0629/c134768-30399835.html> (accessed 25 December 2018).

services industry by King & Capital Law Firm estimated that a total of 251 online legal organisations were in operation.³⁷

Types of business innovation observed include legal marketplaces and services targeted at the legal community. Under the former, models include the one-stop legal service, software-as-a-service (“SaaS”), and the online-to-offline (“O2O”) model. An example of the one-stop legal service is Ancun, which deals with electronic data storage. One of Ancun’s solutions, a platform for financial disputes, was recently selected as one of 20 outstanding services – a 2018 Annual China Internet Legal Service Innovation Project.³⁸ The platform helps financial institutions quickly file litigation and automates the trial process from beginning to end, such that judges only need to check the judgments before delivery. As a result, it takes an average of 15 minutes for a judge to handle a credit card case, from reviewing the documents to adjudication.

An example of an SaaS service provider is Jianfabang, which allows start-ups and early stage companies to generate their own legal documents, including documents relating to angel investing, equity options, day-to-day contracts, and company shareholding. Other online tools include a financing calculator, equity allocation calculator, and AI which helps to annotate and interpret a Letter of Intent.³⁹

Instances of O2O services abound, such as online services which connect clients with lawyers – including Pocket Lawyer, Yifatong and Yingle as mentioned previously. These

“matchmaking” portals may also involve human intermediaries, who can jump in where a user needs advice on lawyer selection.⁴⁰ Notably, 51djl (“ ”), a.k.a. ClickLaw, provides users with a visualisation of a lawyer’s success rate according to the level of court and type of case he or she was involved in, as well as links to the judgments of these cases.⁴¹ These portals may also offer other big data related services, such as Falvgu (“ ”) and Wusong which both enable users to evaluate the chances of litigation success.⁴²

Platforms with services targeted at the legal community include Legaltech.cc, which provides data management system solutions for the legal services industry. Additionally, Sujian Law provides legal financial technology services, including matching creditors, finance institutions and law firms, and enabling the quick processing of litigation financing.⁴³ Within the legal

37 King & Capital Law Firm, “2017 Research Report on the Online Legal Services Industry”

<http://www.pkulaw.cn/LawFirmQikDetail/PDFReader.aspx?pdf=VB3Yd_a3jCYmCwWnwFMfhoKWd5cZHDYKEeSuczw OFcsgBeat3RlraFIFK0PtAwI2jm7Ptmwnzwk=> (accessed 25 December 2018).

38 China Business Telecommunications, “Ancun’s Worry-Free Intelligence Platform was Selected for China Internet Legal Service Innovation Project” (29 November 2018) <https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/1670046122/638ae1aa00100l5i1>

(accessed 25 December 2018).

39 Jianfabang website, “Services” and “Service Process” <https://www.jianfabang.com/website/index/footerInfo.html?id=11>;

<https://www.jianfabang.com/website/index/footerInfo.html?id=12> (both accessed 26 December 2018).

40 Jing Li, “Platform Economy in Legal Profession: An Empirical Study of Online Legal Service Providers in China” (2018) 35 UCLA Pac Basin LJ 97 at p 120.

41 Click Law website, “Check Lawyers” <http://www.51djl.com/lawyer/query> (accessed 26 December 2018).

42 Falvgu website, “Check Case” <http://www.falvgu.com/public/html/describe.html> (accessed 26 December 2018); Wusong website <https://www.wusong.com/> (accessed 26 December 2018).

43 Ebaoquan website, “Ebaoquan and Sujian Law Reaches Strategic Cooperation to Build a New Ecosystem of Financial Legal Services” (26 September 2017) <https://www.ebaoquan.org/news/showNews?newsId=74> (accessed 26 December 2018).

fraternity itself, Lawyers’ Cloud is a mobile platform for lawyers to engage in practical discussions, communicate, and even share training videos.⁴⁴

VI. Education innovation

In light of the Chinese government’s focus on strengthening research to establish laws, regulations and ethical frameworks for the healthy development of AI,⁴⁵ law schools and the private sector have responded by setting up new courses and even institutes.

For example, Tsinghua University Law School said in April 2018 that it will establish a Master of Laws in Law and Computing, and technical courses on the Internet, big data and AI.⁴⁶ In July 2018, the University also held its first computational law-themed summer camp for 46 undergraduate students from different schools and majors such as computer science, information and communications technology, and statistics. Among other activities, campers visited Alibaba’s Beijing headquarters and met officials from the China Justice Big Data Institute.⁴⁷

Research centres and associations dedicated to law and technology innovation have been also

Research centres and associations dedicated to law and technology innovation have been also

In document Personalidad y actitudes hacia la sexualidad en mujeres víctimas de violencia de género que asisten al Centro de Salud CLAS de San Jerónimo – Cusco, 2020. (página 35-43)